Paul’s Letter to the Galatians Retold for Modern Ears

 

Dearest Siblings,

            If you hear nothing else in this letter I write to you, hear this, you are God’s Children.

            Do you know my story? I was a zealous Jew—a fundamentalist you might call me… a violent extremist even. You see, I had heard that some Jews had declared that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah—the Chosen One of God sent to make all things right. This Jesus, who was crucified on a cross, who his disciples claimed was raised from the dead and ascended to God’s right hand—they declared “Jesus is Lord.”

            Now, I’d read my bible, and knew Deuteronomy—there it is written, “All who hang upon a tree are accursed.” I had my proof text, so I knew they were lying about God.

So, being a violent extremist, I did the logical thing, I rallied around the stoning of Stephen, harassed and harried the church in Jerusalem until they fled; I did all I could to oppose these so called “people of the way.”

            And then I met him—their resurrected Lord.

            I was wrong—the Blessed One received the curse of the cross, and in so doing short circuited all curses, so that all may be blessed, so that all may be God’s Children.

 

            After this shock, I went back home for three years and looked at everything in light of the earliest Christian creed, “Jesus is Lord.” Then, Jesus’ disciples called me to preach that Gospel to the non-Jewish world. All went well, until, a disaster occurred at my home congregation in Antioch.

While I was away, strangers came, and sewed division between the Jewish Christians and Non-Jewish Christians there—the central point of this conflict was at the meal table—they became dis-united at the com-union table. The interlopers claimed the non-Jewish Christians were outsiders to the Gospel, that they were of a different family, who God only partially embraced. By the time they got done with the community Christians were treating one another like strangers, instead of fellow Children of God. 

The reason I wrote this letter to the Galatians is that the same thing was happening among them, divisions, divisiveness, and disowning one another. May it never happen among you!

 

            The root of this division was that they preached a different Gospel. A False Gospel. They preached a Jesus Plus Gospel… but the Gospel is Just Jesus.

            They preached a False Gospel, that claimed that the Kingdom of God has second class citizens… That there are multiple tiers to trusting Jesus. 

(For example, if you look at the pietism movement within Lutheranism, it is a reaction to the idea that the clergy are above lay people—that’s why the ELCA defines their clergy as set apart or aside, not set above)

            They preached a False Gospel, that claimed that before you put on Christ as your baptismal garment, you have to put on other cultural or religious garb… That before God can save you, you gotta save yourself. 

(For example, this was part of St. Augustine’s big question in his book City of God do you have to be a good Roman before you can be a good Christian?)

            

So hear this: Jesus Christ plus anything is less than Jesus Christ. 

-Jesus plus the Law is less than Jesus Christ. 

-Jesus plus circumcision is less than Jesus Christ. 

-Jesus plus hierarchy is less than Jesus Christ. 

 

            Here’s the Gospel, the True Gospel.

            The True Gospel is that God shows no partiality, the Promise of Jesus is meant for all. You’re a Child of God.

            The True Gospel is that if God sets you free, you’re free! You’re a Child of God.

 

            What God did in Jesus Christ, wasn’t window dressing, it was substantial. 

The Gospel is not a renegotiation of some rules; it’s God’s invasion of an enslaved world, the overthrow of all wickedness, the emancipation of all who are captured by sin, adopting us as Children of God.

The Gospel is the promise that God is transforming the entire cosmos through his Son, Jesus. God is recreating everything, and the Church gets to be part of that!

 

So, don’t get twisted up in the type of games that they were playing in Antioch. If God is recreating everything, those easy categories we use to make sense of the world, become stumbling blocks for embracing Jesus and being his body in the world together with your fellow believers. 

In fact, in my days, it was assumed the universe was created and held together by something called antimonies—pairs of opposites “Air and Earth, Fire and Water, Flesh and Spirit, Slavery and Freedom” and so on. So, most people believed that these divisions were REAL, were the actual bricks used to create the world… but God’s making all things news—recreating the world, and the only category that truly matters is belonging to God.

Gender, indebtedness, criminal records, social status, race, country, and culture and all that comes with those categories…These dividing lines, these categories we use to construct our world, melt in the waters of Baptism. You are God’s Children.

I write this letter leaning on a single question that I pray that Christianity will continue to wrestle with, even long after I, Paul, am dead. “Who occupies you?”

 

In case I’m being obtuse, or a certain level of rugged individualism has clogged your ears to what I’m asking, let me try to state my question a little more clearly—Who occupies y’all? Or maybe, “you’se” or “You’uns” or “you folk” or even just “the congregation?”

While every individual is precious, and that truth must not be lost—our life together as Christians, as the body of Christ, is of utmost importance to my question today “Who occupies you?”

I pray that the ages will not neuter my question, tame it, make it into a question of private morality or some sort of spiritual hobby.

Because this is about all of us, how we live as freed people, how we are Christ for one another. “Who occupies you?”

Have you noticed there is a vicious, silent, enslaving, invasion going on? In the seeming plainness of our lives there is a war going on. This power holds us down, has occupied the lives of so many, has enslaved so much of the world.

 

In my letter to the Galatians, I called this occupying power, this enemy, “The Flesh.” 

It saddens me to hear that many have taken this word to deal with human bodies, and has led some people to feel great shame for being an embodied human being. This was not my intent, in fact if you read my letters carefully you will note I make a distinction between The Flesh, this thing that has pulled one over on us and has captured us, and The Body, which is part of the good human thing we’ve been created to be…

 

So, perhaps I could come up with a way to re-name this power, for all your sakes, so that you might more easily understand what I’m saying,

What then shall I call it?... This occupying power is Sin. This occupying power is Self-obsession. This occupying power is Neighbor-Destruction… You get my point now, don’t you? We are occupied by, self, by being turned away from our neighbor and fixated on MEEEE!

 

That’s what I mean when I say “we are occupied by The Flesh.” That’s what I mean when I say that The Flesh is at war against us, intends to take us prisoner, and enslave us. “Who occupies you?”

 

Like any occupation, there are those who resist. Those brave groups of people who fight back, who escape, who will not cooperate with the enemy, no matter what.

 

One way of resisting, a force used to combat the occupation, a good one, a godly one even, is The Law. Yes, The Law, a set of rules we can follow to stop hurting our neighbors, to quit seeking after selfish things, to resist Sin, resist the Flesh. 

The 10 commandments, the stories of God’s acts for God’s people, community rules, at their best basic, the rules governing society, are put in place to restrain evil and make good neighbors.

I repeat, The Law is a good solution, even one given by God. Yet it, like us, has been enslaved by the Flesh, infected even, not allowed to act as it ought.

It’s proper use is to help us love our neighbor, but it can be made to be exclusive and can keep us immature. The Law creates insiders and outsiders, those who follow it, and those who do not, and that separation has a way of coming back at you like a boomerang. You start defining yourself as not a lawbreaker, and soon enough you are defining yourself as not like your neighbor—soon enough you build a wall between you and your neighbor and you start to care about only those on your side of the fence of the Law.

Isn’t that wild, the very thing that is supposed to help you love your neighbor, can be tricked into making you hate him!

 

 

Think of those disciples of Jesus who enter into a Samaritan village, the village of a people who keep a different law than they do—and these disciples, people who’ve been toddling after Jesus like a flock of ducklings behind a mamma duck, even they wonder if they should ask God to destroy the village! After all it’s not theirvillage, it’s not their people! Not their laws…

Yes, The Law, both scriptural and secular, transformed by The Flesh, can create exclusion. It can also keep us immature, it’s like a helicopter parent who won’t let us grow up.

 

Think of it, there are many ways to love your neighbor, fixating on a single way, because it’s the rules, can make you miss out on all kinds of good ways to show God’s love to people.

Take something as simple as tying your shoe. When you first learn the rules to tying a shoe you learn the rhyme: 
Over, Under, Around and through, Meet Mr. Bunny Rabbit, pull and through.

But if you repeated that song every time you tie your shoes for the rest of your life… you’d get funny looks at the office, and for that matter, you’d never learn a double knot, or that knots can hold together hammocks and sails and many other things, not just shoes. So too, learning from The Law is wonderful, and regular refresher courses are great reminders of how to love our neighbor, but if it is the beginning and end of the way we love other people, we’re missing out!

“Who occupies you?” The good news is that there is another way to fight the Flesh. Christ has freed us, and we hold onto this freedom and resist the power of the Flesh, by being captured by one another.

            Get that?

We’re going to be captured by something, so it is imperative that we are captured by each other, captured by the love we share with one another. Every other option ends up with us eradicating each other.

            

This loving way—bound to one another in liberty—is the way of the Spirit, the way Jesus continues to move us into freedom. The Spirit liberates us and puts us to the work of loving one another.  We can be occupied by The Spirit, instead of The Flesh.

 

“Who occupies you?” When we look at our life together, do we see the Spirit or the Flesh? We’ll know, at least in part, by the fruits that we produce. Are we as a community: sexually exploitative, spiritually suspect, a public embarrassment, and a fractured family? Or, are we as a community filled with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faith, gentleness, and self-control?

Together we struggle against sinful-selfish-neighbor-hate—the Flesh. We resist it with The Law, but find it wanting. We cling to the freedom given to us by Christ by clinging to one another in the Spirit of love. Let us live in the Spirit, let us carry out our life together under the guidance of the Spirit. 

            By way of closing this letter, let me remind you of the two things I’ve written to you previously. 1. Keep living in the Spirit. 2. The Gospel is just Jesus.

 

            Because we live in the Spirit, let us carry out our daily lives under the Holy Spirit’s guidance. We’ve been freed from the Flesh—unhealthy self-interest—and we’ve been freed by the Spirit for our neighbor. Everyone needs to be occupied by something, so let us be occupied by the Holy Spirit, occupied by love of each other.

            What’s that look like—living in the Spirit?

-Well, if someone falls, restore them with gentleness (that’s a fruit of the Spirit, isn’t it?), after all, you too could just as easily be tempted as they were.

-Bear one another’s burdens—that’s how the Spirit’s gift of patience is lived out in community… that’s how you lovetoo—and love fulfills the Law of Christ.

-Give your neighbor the benefit of the doubt, while taking responsibility for your own actions—that’s the essence of the Spiritual gift of self-control. Think about it, while we human know our own innermost thoughts and intentions, we don’t know those of the person next to us.

-Embrace generosity, by working for the good of all, especially those who are members of the Family of God. 

 

That’s a few examples of the fruits of the Spirit lived out in concrete reality
—I think you are hearing what I’m saying…

Those Fruit of the Spirit, and sadly, the Works of the Flesh that you as a community are planting… they will come to bloom—that’s both a warning and a promise; so, in this planting season, let’s plant pleasant seeds of community, not wicked seeds of selfishness. Keep living in the Spirit.

            As I come to a close, I write one final time, in big ol’ letters, about the main issue in the community in Galatia 

You are members of the family of God because of Jesus, whether you’ve been marked in the flesh by circumcision or not.

Do not boast in the flesh, boast only in the Cross of Jesus.

            As I wrote previously, Jesus Plus anything, is less than Jesus alone… for he alone is the one who is transforming all things… 
the message about him saving us, is the only thing that is Gospel, the only thing worth boasting about.

            Remember my story—I was so sure that the early church was wrong, I had proof texts and everything, “Everyone who dies on a tree is accursed.” The cross was the ultimate dividing line between me and them; a division worth killing over, certainly worth boasting about… 

But now I say to you: Boast because the Blessed One was crucified, on a cursed cross—and that changed everything! All the divisions of this world are scattered, every distinction that separates the blessed from the cursed, is now gone—because a new creation, a new world, is here! That alone matters! 

            Trust that this is true, dear friends! It is a blessing of peace and mercy! It is the grace of our Lord Jesus, the anointed of God, saturating our spirit, making us siblings. Thanks be to God. Amen!

Intended Unintended Consequences of War

               When I was a Freshman History major at the University of Oregon, I took an introductory course on the History of War. This was during the lead up to the US invasion of Iraq, so I heard everything the professor said in light of the upcoming conflict. One of the main lessons I remember from this course was that wars have unintended consequences, and often lead to radicalization of goals and national identities.

              An example of unintended consequences: The Napoleonic Wars led to the creation of Germany as a unified state. When France invaded and captured territory of the Holy Roman Empire they consolidated the tiny little principalities into larger administrative states (many of them that still exist to this day). This made it much easier for Prussia to consolidate them all into a single country.

              An example of radicalized goals: At the outset of the American Civil War the Union’s goal was its preservation, returning the Southern states to the Union. As the war drug on, battlefield choices were made regarding freeing slaves to undermine the war fighting capacity of the Confederacy, and frankly the average Union soldier saw slavery up close instead of through the eyes of newspapers and Southern songs. In a variety of ways this strengthened the hand of the abolitionist cause, and eventually moved Lincoln to shift the goal of the war from the moderate goal of returning slave states to the Union, to the radical goal of the eradication of slavery on the continent.

              Another thing I remember is the professor saying that there are people whose job it is to game out possible unintended consequences of war. In other words, to discover unintended consequences of an action and make them intended consequences. This brings me to the current war in Ukraine. I wonder what unintended intended consequences and radicalization might be hoped for by people whose job it is to think about these things.

              I imagine Russia chose to escalate the war in Ukraine (because they’d been in a proxy war there for some time) as they did, with the hope of destabilizing the post-Cold War world order. They invaded so that “the West” would make choices that undermined their place on the world stage and bolstered that of BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India, and China). Additionally, they likely hoped to draw BRIC nations closer together, at this point their main commonalities are rising economies, not alliances. I have noticed India is rather muted in their criticisms of Russia’s choice to go to war, and both they and China are buying Russian oil now that Europe and America have lessened their purchases.

              On the other side of the coin, Europe has responded more forcefully than expected. Russia may have singlehandedly re-armed Europe. Russia’s choice to invade may have prompted the European Union to seek a policy of knocking out their potential rival in the East out of contention as a regional player on the world stage as we move to being an increasingly multipolar world. Traditionally neutral-ish countries like Sweden and Finland are formally joining NATO, Ukraine might join the EU. There are reports that Russia has depleted its stock of some types of missiles, even as Germany is gearing up to create more such weapons as a deterrent.

              There is also a radicalization going on within Ukraine. From reports I’ve read, even the most pro-Russian mayors and governors are sounding like Churchill: they’ll fight Russia on the beaches, they’ll fight them in the forest, they will never surrender! If Russia’s assessment that Ukraine wasn’t a real state that they weren’t a real people, was true, their choice to go to war has radicalized “the” Ukraine, and it is now and forever only Ukraine. If they believed there were a bunch of Russians next door to them, who just happened to be living in a geographic region known as “The” Ukraine, now they have no choice but to acknowledge that their neighbors are Ukrainians.

Reconstituting the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

 

Reconstituting the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

I forget about it sometimes, but the ELCA’s three expressions of the Church are rather fascinating, and I think, beautiful. At root there is an assumption that no matter whether it is the local, regional, or national church, each revolve around the same basic structure and pattern of life together. We gather for worship (and service of neighbor as able), holds announced meetings regularly (every six months, once a year, every three years, whatever) with all the folk who had gathered in worship, in order to make major decisions about our life together, elect people to oversee that work until the next meeting, and then those elected folk organize themselves to do the tasks the whole body agreed to do.

This happens most obviously, as least to my eyes, on the congregational level; but ideally Synod Assemblies and Churchwide Assemblies flow in this same way. Sometimes Synod and Churchwide Assemblies can feel more political, and like you’re a representative of particular interests, instead of a member of a worshipping community, but at their heart those assemblies are nothing more than congregations that happen to be at an event center and meet for multiple days.

              There is currently some buzz going into this upcoming Churchwide Assembly around rethinking the ELCA’s constitution. The ELCA was formed in 1988; the merger of three Lutheran Denominations that each had their own understanding of Church and ways of doing things. After intense negotiations these three church bodies dissolved themselves and became something new. Aside from the three expressions of the ELCA mentioned above, some major differences between the three previous denominations were left unresolved in our constitution. There was an assumption that we would “live into it” and that the very worshipful and practical way these three expressions function would deal with the differences over time. And, I think, to some extent they have, but a lot has changed in the world and in the church in the last 34 years. The sun belt has grown, the rust belt has shrunk, the internet exists, and the Soviet Union has fallen; the ELCA has contracted numerically, we’ve finally decided what to do with seminary trained non-ordained folk (now we ordain them and call them Deacons), and the two feuding Pennsylvania seminaries have merged. So, it might be time to reconstitute the ELCA to better fit our present reality.

              What follows are a few thoughts and reconfigurations that are rattling around in my head, and I feel might be grist for our dreams and visions as a denomination.

 

Some Thoughts on Language: What are Congregations?

              So, one of the awkward things about the ELCA is that we have organizations called SAWCs, Synodically Authorized Worshipping Communities, and we have Congregations. Often times SAWCs are seen as second-class congregations, since the goal of the SAWC is to transition into an ELCA congregation. SAWCs are sometimes served by Pastors who are called irregularly, and their purse strings are held by larger forces than their own.

But, SAWCs acknowledge, in their name, that the primary focus is Worship and Community, which is the way the ELCA’s constitution describes a congregation. What if all expressions of the church in the ELCA were described as Worshipping Communities? Congregations would be Locally Authorized Worshipping Communities, the Synods would be a Regionally Authorized Worshipping Community, and Churchwide would be the Nationally Authorized Worshipping Community.

 

What about Service?:

              But wait, one of the other actions done by Church in the ELCA constitution is that we not only worship, but we also serve. What if we created a second type of community, Authorized Service Communities? These could be spaces where Deacons are especially called to practice their ordination to the roster of Word and Service.

In fact, what might happen if we work to re-designate a third of ELCA congregations as Local Authorized Service Communities? What if we also offer a smooth path for Pastors to transfer from the roster of Word and Sacrament to the roster of Word and Service? How might that shift our mission as a denomination and put to rest the idea that the ELCA “doesn’t know what to do with Deacons.”

 

Decenter the National Church:

              In the last few years, we’ve been forced to admit that it is zoom’s world now, we all just live in it. People can work from anywhere. As such, what if we moved the national church into the 7 seminaries?

What if each seminary houses a specialized unit of the national church? For example, what if the seminary in Chicago houses our International Mission arm, since it boasts an exemplary international airport? What if Luther in Minneapolis houses our publishing and communications arm, since it is close to Augsburg? United Lutheran could house the experts on urban and rural ministry on their respective urban and rural campuses. This would make the national church a tad more accessible, shielding it from common criticisms that always begin “Higgins Road” (the street the national church is located on). It would also connect the national church with fire-in-their-belly seminarians and connect the seminarians with those who the seminarians see as being “in the room where it happens.”

 

A Few Statistics:

The ELCA currently is made up of:

7 Seminaries,

89 Camps,

180 College Campus Ministries,

285 Lutheran Health and Human Service Organizations,

and 8,900 congregations.

 

Synod Reorg Idea 1: Every Camp a Cathedral:

              One of the most common ways people stay connected with the ELCA through their teenage years and into young adulthood is via camp. The ELCA wants to grow young. Well, camp is one of the places where our young are growing.  Additionally, the ELCA has some pretty solid commitments to good ecological practices and care of creation. A way to care more deeply for young people’s faith lives and refresh our ecological chops, would be to center the Regionally Authorized Worshipping Community at Lutheran Camps.

There are 89 ELCA camps and approximately 8,900 ELCA congregations. In this reforming of the ELCA, instead of 65 Synods, there would be 89 Regionally Authorized Worshipping Communities (RAWC).

Each RAWC would be in relationship with:

- 100 Congregations

- 3 Lutheran Health and Human Service Organizations

- 2 Campus ministries

 

Synod Reorg Idea 2: The 300, Think Locally, Think Interdependence, Think Deacons

              As I asked above, what if there were a bunch more Deacons and about 1/3 of present ELCA congregations became Local Authorized Service Communities? Additionally, it is worth noting the smallest Synod in the ELCA contains 30 congregations.

              In this reforming of the ELCA instead of 65 Synods there would be 300 Synods. Each Synod would be centered around 1 Campus Ministry or Camp and 1 Lutheran Health and Human Service Organizations. The Lutheran Health and Human Service Organizations would have a Synodical Deacon attached to it and the Campus Ministry or Camp would have a Bishop attached to it. Both would be elected every 4 to 6 years at an annual Synod Assembly.

              Instead of congregation, there would be triads, consisting of 1 Locally Authorized Service Community and 2 Locally Authorized Worshipping Communities. Each triad would be served by at least one Deacon and one Pastors.

              There would be 10 Triads (consisting of 30 communities) in each Synod.

              The Synodical Deacon would spend much of their time connecting the 10 LASCs to the Lutheran Health and Human Service Organization to which the Synodical Deacon is attached, and providing assistance and oversight for service work in the region. The Bishop would spend much of their time connecting the 20 LAWCs to the Camp or Campus Ministry to which they are attached.

              This sounds needlessly complicated, but here’s an example of what it might look like in practice:

              Synodical Deacon, Thomas Zimmerman, is connected to Lutheran Social Ministries of Wyoming. He serves as the liaison between the Service Communities in his region and Lutheran Social Ministries, finding ways how they can partner well with one another, and also finding ways to connect the 10 Service Communities with one another. Bishop Alice Carpenter is connected to Lutheran Campus Ministry of Beetlecreek College. She is in regular contact with 20 Worshipping Communities and their Pastors. She helps the communities in her region see themselves as partners with the Campus Ministry. Together they run call processes when Triads wish to call new Pastors and Deacons. They contact the National Authorized Worshipping Community found at Southern Seminary, to get candidates, since the Candidacy process is run out of that seminary.

              Pastors Becky and Deacon Hellen serve a Triad of St. Paul’s Worshipping Community and Grace Worshipping Community, as well as a Homeless Shelter called Grace Place, which is run out of Grace Worshipping Community’s old parsonage. Deacon Hellen’s focus is running Grace Place and Pastor Becky’s focus is on St. Paul and Grace. Most of the time Pastor Becky leads worship at both Worshipping Communities, but in the summer months both St. Paul and Grace choose to change their worship time to 8:30am, so Deacon Hellen and Pastor Becky alternate between congregations. Members of both Grace and St. Paul’s support Grace Place financially and with ongoing in-kind donations.

Deacon Hellen is in regular contact with Synodical Deacon Thomas and connects guests from Grace Place with Lutheran Social Ministry. Bishop Alice recently invited students from Lutheran Campus Ministry to worship at Grace Worshipping Community; afterwards they helped power washed Grace Place’s siding and shared a meal with the families there.

 

Reconstituting the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America 34 years from now

              Again, I hope this is grist for the mill, as we dream about the next 34 years. Then perhaps the ELCA will need to reconstitute again, because we have just established the first Worshipping Community on the moon, the ELCA is known for our Deacons, we’ve established ecumenical relationships with not 6 Full Communion Partners, but 16, and each of our seminaries are known as hubs of innovation.

Sermon: Glimpses of the Paraclete

             Who is the Holy Spirit?

            Some names for them include the “Shy Sovereign,” Dove, Breathe of God, and the Spirit of Adoption. 
Or look at those that show up in our hymns today: 
Sun of the Soul, 
Wise Counsel, 
Root of Life, 
Eternal Vigor… 
Wisdom.

            In John’s Gospel, the Holy Spirit is named “The Paraclete.” Literally: 
The One Called Alongside… 
often translated: 
Advocate, Companion, Comforter, or Helper.

            Yes, the Paraclete.

            This name might be hard to get our heads around, 
each time we seem to grasp Paraclete it slips through our fingers, 
but let’s try to catch a glimpse…

 

You might not have heard of The Paraclete before.

But, I bet you have heard of Paradise
—The space where one dwells in the presence of God.

            One of the ways the Church Fathers understood God was that:
The Father is the Lover, 
The Son is the Beloved, 
and The Holy Spirit is the Love Between Them. 

Think about that…
The relationship between the persons of the Trinity is the third person of the Trinity!!!

For that matter, in John’s gospel, this relationship between Father and Son… 
AND between The Son and those who follow Him 
!(including us today)!
—is continually describing as Abiding
—dwelling
—the act of a child laying on their parent’s bosom…

…Have any of you ever fallen asleep in the back of the car when you were a little kid? 
Or perhaps in the passenger seat next to a close friend or spouse?
—you felt safe back there, 
trusting the love of the driver… 
Wasn’t that paradise?
You were abiding! 

The abiding of God with God’s self, and also God abiding with God’s people… 
The connection within the Godhead and God’s connection to us… that is the Paraclete.

 

You might not have heard of The Paraclete… but you may have met a Paralegal before
—someone who works on behalf of a lawyer, whose work the lawyer is responsible for.

            Luther writes that the Holy Spirit, “calls, enlightens, makes holy, and keeps” the whole church for Jesus’ sake.

            In other words, the Paraclete makes us into paralegals for Jesus. 
We work on his behalf, 
keeping his commandments
—the greatest of which is Love.

Yet these works are ultimately Jesus’ responsibility and his doing
—they flow from him through the Spirit. 
-Whenever our trust in God moves us to follow Jesus…

-Whenever we practice an active faith…
-When we love and live in Christian ways, 
that’s the Paraclete.

 

You might not have heard of The Paraclete but you remember parallels from geometry, or maybe you just watched Marvel’s Multiverse of Madness and are thinking about Parallel timelines.
—Side by Side—a person similar, or analogous, to another.

            Did you know the Father is sending us Another Advocate, Helper… Paraclete.

            The Spirit will act in ways that Parallel the works of Jesus Christ.

            If you were a computer programmer, you might call this parallel activity “Jesus 2.0.”

            The Spirit is not doing something UTTERLY new. 
The Spirit’s work among us is NOT a break with Jesus’ ministry

It is a continuation of it, 
a parallel track with it. 
In fact, some traditions call the Holy Spirit, “The Spirit of Jesus.”

            To make it plain for you all
—if Jesus called the Church to be Mets fans, 
the Spirit would not now be empowering us to be Yankees fans…

            The works of the Spirit parallel the works of Christ
—Personal, humble, relational, work
—when that happens among us, that’s the Paraclete’s doing.

 

You might not have heard of The Paraclete, but you probably have been asked to write a paragraph before
—A distinct section of a piece of writing.

            The Spirit’s message is a distinct message for us
—we ought not attribute every little coincidence to the Spirit
—instead the Paraclete writes a particular paragraph in the book of our life
—teaches and reminds us of the message of:
 God’s Abiding Love, 
the Kingdom of God drawn near
—in fact present with us… 
the message of our Resurrected Lord is the Paraclete’s message.

 

You might not have heard of The Paraclete, but the meaning of Paramedic, and Parachute is probably perfectly plain to you.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus assures his disciples (both then and now) that he’s not abandoning them… 
abandoning us…
            Jesus promises the coming of the Paraclete to the disciples 
-right after one has betrayed him 
-and right before the other denies him.

            He is telling them, “I won’t leave you as orphans.” 

The Holy Spirit is a Paramedic of the soul. 
Just as a Paramedic walks with us through our emergency, 
often times literally beside our gurney, 
the Spirit will walk with them through the trauma and confusion of the Crucifixion and out into the world on Pentecost.

            The Holy Spirit is a Parachute, catching the Church as it is in free-fall, 
leading up to Pentecost,
offering us peace.

Be not Afraid
—it isn’t as scary when you know the Paraclete is with you.

            Paradise, Paralegal, Parallel, Paragraph, Paramedic, Parachute
—all glimpses of the Advocate, the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit.

 

Now that we have glimpsed the Holy Spirit, let us pray for the Paraclete’s presence among us:

Sun of the Soul, sanctify us—make us holy—so that we might abide in the Holy Love of God.

Wise Counsel, enlighten our faith and empower our works, so that both may reveal God. 

Root of Life, graft us into the True Vine, gather us around Jesus Christ.

Eternal Vigor, call us again and again to the Gospel.

Wisdom of God, keep and guard us in your peace. Amen.

Sermon: Paul in Philippi

 

              I had an idea of what today’s sermon was going to be
—a straightforward retelling of the story in Acts,
emphasizing the aspects of the ancient world that needed to be unpacked.

              But the modern world intervened. I’ve had multiple people
—members and non-members alike,
look at the events of the recent weeks
—the revelations about massive sexual abuse in the Southern Baptist Convention
and the recent horrifying mass shootings
and ask me, “Pastor is this the end?
Pastor is our wickedness too much for God?
Pastor is God going to destroy us for all this?”

              So, we’re going to look at this story in Acts,
as a way to unpack, not the ancient world of Paul’s day,
but our present moment.

Let us pray

              We have this woman—an Oracle,
respected for her connection to a Spiritual-something, that allows her to look at entrails of animals, or enter into a trance state, and tell truths.
One such truth is her repetitive description of Paul and his companions, “These men are slaves of the most High God, proclaiming salvation.”

              This eventually gets a rise out of Paul,
who casts out the spirit, and in so doing,
strips the mask off of her existence
—despite all the respect and nice words people might say about the Oracle,
she is ultimately a slave to men who are using her, in this case, for money.
Once she was no longer useful
—she disappears in Acts, never to be seen again.

 

              I wish I could describe this abuse as a relic of the past
—using Spirituality and Religion to hide the use and abuse of people
to gratify personal desires and get away with it…

But we were reminded afresh this week that such wickedness still continues.
The independent report about abuse in the Southern Baptist Convention found that that church body had engaged in a systematic cover-up of sexual abuse for at least the last 20 years.
According to this report (I could only get through 20 pages of the 200 page document, it was just too much):

-The higher ups claimed to have no way to know who was an abuser, while keeping a secret list of more than 700 men.

-The Convention’s President—Rev. Hunt—now stands accused of sexually assaulting his assisting minister’s wife.

-Their publishing house was used to purposefully smear people who spoke out against the abuse and silence survivors.

-Their “Caring Conference” for victims of sexual abuse was used to pump survivors for information to be used against them…

-The person in charge of investigating accusations, saw it as his duty to “break down” rape victims, so they wouldn’t sue the church, but instead the women would just disappear, hopefully never to be seen again.

              Now, I wish this was just something wrong with the Southern Baptists
—but we know it’s not.
Right around 20 years ago a similar report exposed the Roman Catholic Church as an Abuse Mill. 
For that matter, this congregation itself has had at least one Pastor removed for sexual misconduct…

              You know, people sometimes ask me why people my age and younger avoid the Church…
let’s be real, this is one of the reasons.

For millennials, since our teenage years if not earlier,
our eyes have been open to the reality that the beautiful high ideals expressed by religious institutions and spiritual organizations,
sometimes contain hidden agendas and far worse…
How could we not be skeptical?

 

              The response to this unmasking is swift and violent.
First comes the accusation, hiding the profit motive by ginning up prejudice
—these outsiders, these Jews, these non-Romans
—these people other than ourselves
—the Evil Others
—are trying to change who we are,
replace us
—they are an irritant, a pollutant
—that must be punished.

              Paul and his people are: seized / dragged / stripped / beaten / flogged / imprisoned…

              Then, after the Earthquake, the violence continues with the Jailer’s fate for failing
—he is likely a slave, similar to the Oracle
—seen as a device, not a human
—in the ancient world slaves were often tied to prisoners as a primitive “lojack” device.

              He was a device that failed…
and in the ancient world when a device… a person… fails, it is destroyed
—the most honorable answer to failure in Roman Honor/Shame culture,
the only answer
—was suicide…
for him there is no way out.

 

              Again, I wish such normalized violence, casual violence, foundational violence
—was the foundation only of the ancient Roman world…
—but, you can’t tell that to parents hiding tears as they drive their children to school,
well aware of the shooting in Uvalde,
or to Black folk in Buffalo and people of color around the country,
wondering if their next experience of bigotry will be one of deed, not word.

Or even the shooters in these instances, and so many others like them
—what hopeless and evil messages had they internalized
that made violence and death seem to be the only answer,
the glory of Guns their only out?

             

              It’s a lot, isn’t it?
I see why some folk feel like it is the end of the world,
or at least that our wickedness has overflowed its normal boundaries.

              But you know what? These early Christians we read about today
meet the Powers and Principalities,
profit and prejudice,
with proclamation and prayer.

              It is an earthquake
—the message of the Gospel and the prayers that interlace all of their actions
—an earthquake that flips everything on its head.
Nothing looks the same in light of the good news
and aligning their will to the will of God.

              This woman who shouts that Paul is a slave…
her own captivity is revealed, the men who used her…
their intentions are unmasked,
the only Spirit they care about is their own greed and desires.
If nothing else, now she can see the world as it is.

              This jailer is saved by his captives…
Paul tells him a better story
than the one about the glories of death,
that his society tells him.

              Instead of Jailer and Prisoner, they become siblings.
The Jailer is washed in Baptism, and then washes Paul’s wounds,
wounds the Jailer himself may have inflicted.

Then a shared meal.
You are no longer an object!
 You have a future and a place at the table.
 You are a member of God’s family. Let’s eat!

Small, meaningful acts like these are the hallmark of the Kingdom of God.

 

“Pastor is this the end? Pastor is our wickedness too much for God? Pastor is God going to destroy us for all this?”

Hold onto hope; God’s good future is still being written. The resurrecting, redeeming power we find in Christ continues to call life out death, goodness out of evil. A+A

Glory and Love

          The Book of Revelation offers a hopeful vision for where this is all headed… 

It describes the heartbeat of history:
God shall dwell among us, 
and God will make all things new.

Such hope is found in those words repeated again and again in today’s gospel “Gloryand Love.” Our hope is found in God’s Glory and God’s Love.

 

Prayer

         Glory and Love…

         Today’s Psalm is a magnificent song of praise, 
praise from every inch of creation, 
from heights to depths, young to old
—sung from below to our Glorious God above. 
It is a Song that focuses on God’s transcendence
—part of what makes God glorious is that God is close, but not too close, exalted, far away.

         But the Gospel of John has a different understanding of glory
—for him, the ultimate example of glory is the “Visible presence of God in the world hidden in flesh, revealed and exulted in Christ’s kneeling at his disciple’s feet.” 

God’s presence is fully felt when the callused hands of that humble Galilean carpenter washes his Disciple’s feet.

God comes from heaven down to earth in the person of Jesus Christ
—that is God’s Glory.

 

So what?

“We are restless until we rest in God.”
… so if God is only above 
and only far away, 
we will always seek ladders, 
like the Tower of Babel, 
always want to grasp at a God far off…

What does that look like?

You will cling to the “if onlys” in your life
—if only I was younger or stronger or better or richer, 
yet the if onlys will evaporate each time you think you’ve got hold them.

You will shackle yourself to your past, 
trying to tie down what you had and bottle those moments already gone.

You will fixate on your future, 
insisting on perfection, 
obsessed with every “must” and every “or else” that you anticipate is coming.

         But we’re already reconciled with the one to whom the Psalmist sing, ”Praise the Lord” 
He dwelt among us and we can rest in him.

We can rest in him who commanded, “Love one another.”

 

“Love one another.” 
If this command were only beautiful last words from a generous idealist to his friends
—a man betrayed, denied, and soon crushed, by an unloving world
—there would be something romantic in that, 
it might be enough to echo on through the ages
—a shout of defiance worth remembering… 
and for those disciples initially experiencing these words at the last supper, 
that was all it was, 
that side of the resurrection, 
before the resurrection
—Jesus saying “love” was simply a defiant stance against the likes of Pilate and other unloving powers of this world.

 

Defiant words issued to a world run by force and spite, a world where Putin and Javelin missiles, 
mass shootings and bullying 
seem to rule the day…

But, on the other side of the resurrection, 
after the resurrection of Jesus, 
“Love one another”
… it takes on a tone of triumph
—Love wins. 
Love stops cycles of violence, 
love redeems.
The one who called us to love
—loved to the end and beyond the end to a new beginning… 
we now live in an era where love not only defies hate, 
it overcomes it.

 

Love is the only way!

20 some years ago … I was volunteering at the Comea Shelter, a homeless men’s Shelter back in Cheyenne Wyoming.

Each day I filled the shelter’s old blue mini-van up with bedding and drove it down to the commercial launder mat, picked up donations from around town, 
picked up the clean bedding, 
and brought it all back.

Sometimes shelter residents would ride with me and help me load and unload things.

 

Now, there was one resident in particular who would often ride with me. 
He happened to have a Nazi swastika prominently tattooed on his forehead.

We worked together for several weeks—and during that time I did my best not to stare at that thing on his head

—I did my best not to ask questions about it.

Then one day, we were driving along and he said to me, “Chris. I know you look at it.”

“Look at what?” I asked.

“The swastika,” he replied.

I was –this close—to responding, “What Swastika,” but by that time I was staring at his forehead instead of the road, so I replied, “Yeah, I do.”

“I got it while I was in prison down in Denver,” he explained.

That was of course just the kind of comforting thing you want to hear while alone with a guy twice your size.

“Oh,” was all I could reply.

He then told me how much he had hated blacks and Latinos… 
though he used much stronger language for both.

“Oh,” I again replied.

He continued, “Then I got out. No landlord wanted someone like me as a renter… 
the only place that would take me was a housing co-operative for ex-convicts run by a black man. It took me a while, but I just couldn’t hate them anymore.”

Love is the only way!

 

Think of Peter, in Joppa… 
now, I’ve been to Jaffa, it’s squished right up against Tel Aviv
—they’re a strange contrast, there on the shore of the Mediterranean
—Tel Aviv is a glitzy modern city on par with a New York or a London, 
Jaffa is like Juarez, a run-down second-world kind of affair… a
 stark division, while sitting on top of one another. 

I bring up this unsettling difference
—because I imagine Peter is unsettled in a similar way, by the prospects of making no distinction between he and these men from Caesarea
—loving men he normally would consider profane and unclean, 
or at least far from the works of the Spirit, 
far from being God’s people too.

Yet love is the way
—Love lets Peter see these men with new eyes. 
Love lets him recognize God acting among them, 
recognize God’s gift and the life of the Spirit among them
—it looks different, 
it is uncomfortable, 
it is unsettling and strange
—but it is still of God! Still the love that leads to life!

 

 

 

The arch of history and the goal of God, is this:

-God shall dwell among us
—we have already witnessed that Glorious truth in his Son Jesus Christ who came that we might have life.

-God will make all things new
—the love that triumphed over the grave continues to transform the world.

Amen and Alleluia.

Sermon: We don’t talk about Joseph

             There is always a story before the story

—in this case, we know the story of how Cain and Abel’s sibling rivalry led to death and banishment. 
We know the story of Isaac and Ishmael, who only reconciled burying their father Abraham… 
we know of Esau and Jacob, who only reconciled once Isaac, their father, was dead… 
we know that Jacob’s two wives held a motherly rivalry, 
fighting for Jacob’s affection
—using, even, their children to bolster their status…

These brothers, they were born into a family system long entrenched.

 

1.         The story proper, however, begins simply enough, “This is the story of Jacob…”

            And then it takes a turn, “Well, Joseph was 17…

            Joseph was Jacob’s favorite, given a stripy quilted cloak…

Joseph, his first recorded words, “Please listen to the dream that I dreamed,”

Joseph, this Dream Master, who mashes his brother’s faces in his dreams of glory,

Joseph who even dreams of overthrowing his parent’s greatness with his own.

Joseph stripped of his quilted cloak, by his brothers.

Joseph thrown down a well, by his brothers

Joseph flung into a pit while his brothers casually eat snacks.

Joseph’s brothers do not see themselves as their brother’s keeper.

Joseph’s brothers, think they bear no guilt—save two who scheme to save him.

Joseph sold into slavery, he’s now an object like the gum, balm, and resin—all four being exported to Egypt.

“Joseph” Jacob, Joseph’s father, wails.

“Joseph” he shrieks, seeing shreds of the quilted cloak—false evidence of Joseph’s demise.

 

2.         Down in Egypt, he is raised, even as a slave.

            Down in Egypt, he is trapped, again stripped of his cloak.

            Down in Egypt, his cloak is again used as false evidence against him.

            Down in Egypt, he is thrown into the prison pit.

            Down in Egypt, his status goes up and down and up again.

            Down in Egypt, he is still a Dream Master

Down in Egypt dreaming of the ups and down of Pharaoh’s court.

            Down in Egypt, he, Joseph, is given an Egyptian name, “God Speaks, He Lives!”

 

3.         Back in Canaan, they don’t talk about Joseph.

            Back in Canaan, years pass without him.

 

            Back in Egypt, Joseph is the Dream Master—interpreting Master Pharaoh’s dreams.

            Back In Egypt, warning of a Famine.

            Back in Egypt, they prepare!

Back in Egypt, they put themselves on war footing to fill barns and feed people.

            

Back in Canaan, Jacob sees which way the wind is blowing.

            Back in Canaan, Jacob sees crops are dying, the family’s flocks too.

            Back in Canaan, Jacob hatches a plan to save his family—Go to Egypt!

            Back in Canaan, the brothers ignore Jacob’s plan.

            Back in Canaan, they reluctantly go down to Egypt.

 

4.         There is something eerie in Egypt.

            There is something suspenseful like a horror show.

            There is something that points to the Brother’s guilt.

            -when “God Speaks, He Lives” asks the brothers about their Father and other Brothers. They admit to him, “We don’t talk about Joseph.”

            -When they return back home with gum, balm, and resin. Guilty!

            -When they see the silver placed back in their bags—silver paid for a slave. Guilty!

            -When they plead, “take us as slaves, don’t kill the young one.” Guilty!

            Guilty, Guilty, Guilty.

 

            There is something that points to their change of heart!

            -They’ve matured in the years between. Changed.

            -They’re concerned for their younger brother! (Remember, they weren’t concerned for Joseph!) Changed.

            -They protest, “Don’t do this, it will distress our father.” (Remember, they weren’t concerned for their father’s feelings when they waved the torn quilt in front of his face?) Changed.

            Changed, Changed, Changed.

 

5.         “God Speaks, He Lives” weeps once. 

“God Speaks, He Lives” weeps twice.

“God Speaks, He Lives” sends away his servants, and the interpreter too.

“God Speaks, He Lives” the pharaoh’s right hand man. Alone before them.

“God Speaks, He Lives” let’s out an uncontrollable sob. Heard in the other room, outside, all the way to Pharaoh’s court.

 

“It is me, Joseph. Is my Papa okay?”

“It is me Joseph—the one you sold into slavery, sent down to Egypt.”

“It is me Joseph, the one God is using in this awful time of famine, to feed the whole world… to feed you, my brothers!”

“It is me Joseph, come in for a hug, gather close, close the distance between us.”

“It is me Joseph, our past is past.

“It is me Joseph, we’ve crossed the chasm between us, the desert of Sinai between Egypt and Canaan.”

“It is me Joseph, I don’t seek you harm, nor desire vengeance.”

“It is me Joseph, let’s go see our papa, while he’s still alive.”

The Wine is Giving Out

 The Wine is Giving Out

            The Wine is Giving Out…

            And it is only the third day! 

(yes the third day is pointing to Jesus’ resurrection, no doubt)
 
but there is also a more mundane point to be made as well… 
the wine is giving out on the 3^rd day of a 5 to 8 day wedding… 
—did you know the Song of Songs was thought to be regularly read, a chapter a day, at ancient 8 day royal weddings…

three days in…
But, The Wine is Giving Out…

            There is such shame in that, shame enough to go around.

-The Host has not provided for the guests; he is failing in his obligation, that comes with throwing such a party.

-The Guests have not held up their end of the bargain either. It is their obligation to bring a gift to be shared, to keep the festivities going.

            No one brought enough—the Wine is Giving Out…

 

            It feels like that for us too, right? The wine is giving out…

The whole world was running on empty, and THEN we got the Delta Omicron one two punch… 
any road map for navigating the Pandemic we have is well smudged by this point
—ad libing and calling audables can go on for a while, but it isn’t sustainable… 
certainly not for years…

            Some of us have experienced painful losses beyond words…

Others are exhausted and depressed, landing so low. 
Still others, are bouncing balls of anxiety, 
shouting at the top of our lungs “Just do something!”

            I heard of a Superintendent who collapsed the other day when he was asked to make a decision on whether or not to cancel an event, 
and when he got back up, he simply said, 
“I can’t be responsible for canceling one more thing.”

            The wine is giving out.

 

            That’s what she told her son… 
It’s a strange interaction between the two—Mother and Son, 
but I think implied in the conversation is that she knows what so few do yet—the Ahah! The Revelation! of Epiphany!
he’s the Messiah
—the messiah at a wedding feast, 
a wedding banquet.

She says to him, “Gee, son, none of the scriptures that talk about the Messianic Banquet, 
where all shall be fed, 
where richly strained wine shall flow for the feast, 
and where death itself will be on the menu… 
none of them talk about running out of wine… 
especially on the third day…”

And this leads to Jesus’ first sign in John’s Gospel (that’s what this Gospel calls Miracles, because they point to something beyond themselves)
—before the healings, 
before the feeding, 
before walking on water, 
before raising from the dead
—it begins with this celebration, 
this removal of communal shame,
this joyful abundance…

He takes these stone jars filled with water for ritual purity
—things of holiness… 

(When I was in Israel I got to see some of these, well preserved all the way form Jesus’ day—they were maybe three times wider than me and nearly as talI as I am)… 

            He takes this holy water and makes it into a banquet of joy
—180 gallons of wine… 
1,000 bottles of wine
—rivers of abundance.

            And they respond, struck with joy, these servants and the wine steward
“At the last, good wine! 
At the last, 
at the end, 
hope!” 
On the third day, when all seems lost, 
it is found, found in abundance and with great joy! 

He was in the tomb, 
at the end, his disciples and friends filled with terror and despair and all kinds of worry and disappointment,
 and then… New Life! 
Resurrection!

            

            The wine is giving out
—but we have hope, we have God’s promise… 

The promise and clarity of wine strained clear… 

            The promise that in the midst of holiness, there is also joy!

            The promise that God made life for more than just living, 
but for abundance
—a life more than mere existence and certainly more than the acquisition of things
—an extravagant, sustained and sufficient life in the presence of Christ.

            A promise that banishes shame, 
transforms obligation, 
tames anxiety, 
uplifts exhaustion, 
holds us in his Abundant love, 
in our loss and sorrows.

A resurrection promise, 
a promise of hope, 
even at the last.

A+A